Don’t forget Form LM-10 reporting deadline

by Kevin J. Skelly

Every year, employers must publicly report specific transactions or arrangements relating to unionization or the threat of unionization. The report must be made within 90 days after the end of the employer’s fiscal year. For employers whose fiscal years coincide with the calendar year, the reporting deadline will be at the end of March.

The report is made on Form LM-10, which is issued by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Nongovernmental employers must file the form annually to disclose financial dealings with union officials and representatives.

An employer must report payments or loans to union officials, shop stewards, employees, or other union representatives if:

• A union or an individual is actively seeking to represent the employer’s workers;

• A substantial part of the employer’s business consists of buying from, selling or leasing to, or dealing with another employer whose workers are represented by a union or a union is attempting to represent those employees;

• The employer buys from, sells or leases to, or otherwise deals with a union;

• The employer buys from, sells or leases to, or otherwise deals with a trust in which a union is interested; or

• The employer is in active and direct competition with another employer described in one of the above scenarios.

In addition to payments made to union officials, employers must report (1) certain payments (e.g., to employees) made to defeat unionization efforts if the payments were made so that employees would dissuade their coworkers from unionizing and (2) payments to labor relations consultants.

Examples of payments that must be reported include those made to a union official to establish a business relationship with a union, payments to take a union official on a golf outing, payments for dinner and drinks with a union official with whom the employer is negotiating a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), and expenses for the printing and dissemination of materials that threaten to move or close a plant if it becomes unionized.

The law does not require submitting Form LM-10 for “sporadic or occasional gifts, gratuities, or favors of insubstantial value.”

Completed forms should be mailed to the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment Standards Administration, Office of Labor-Management Standards, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Room N-5616, Washington, DC 20210.

Kevin J. Skelly is an associate with Day Pitney LLP in Parsippany, New Jersey. He is a frequent contributor to New Jersey Employment Law Letter. He can be reached at kskelly@daypitney.com.